Tully

Laura Clifford

Robin Clifford

Tully Coates Jr. (Anson Mount, "Crossroads") spends his days enjoying the
allures of the local ladies who effortlessly fall into his path while growing
increasingly frustrated trying to learn how to run the family farm from
his taciturn, secretive father Tully Sr. (Bob Burrus, TV's "The Guiding
Light"). When younger brother Earl's (Glenn Fitzgerald, "The Believer")
best friend, neighbor Ella (Julianne Nicholson, "The Love Letter"), returns
home from school, Earl turns a watchful eye on Tully's skittish interest
in the young woman. Just as Ella gains Tully's trust, he discovers
two earth-shattering secrets he's been being guarded from by Earl and his
father in "Tully."

Laura:After an arduous, two year trip to theatrical distribution, the multiple
festival award winner "Tully" arrives to make its mark as a true
American independent. Based on the O'Henry prize winning story by
Tom McNeal by coproducer/writer/directory Hilary Birmingham, this pastoral
coming of age film allows devastating events to slowly attain emotional
power.

Tully takes sex for granted, most recently getting entangled with possessive
stripper April (Catherine Kellner, "Spring Forward"). He ignores
disapproving looks when he buys condoms by the dozen. He's a good-looking
guy with broad shoulders for farm work and little time for introspection.
Lying on the hood of his car with April, she tells him his face is bland
- 'a girl could make it into any of six different happy endings,' she observes.
Ella's fresh-faced friendship proves a natural draw for Tully, though,
and increasingly he finds himself in her company.

Brother Earl is Tully's opposite, darker and brooding, sensitive and
thoughtful, but with enough sense of humor to enjoy Tully's comeuppance
by April, who destroys and hangs his car's hood from a tree when she finds
he's shared it with another. Tully Sr. gruffly chides his son for
the incident, but he's secretly trying to save the farm from foreclosure
caused by debt from a most surprising source. When Tully Jr. is buffeted
by a one-two punch, followed by an earth-shattering tragedy, he runs from
emotional involvement with the first woman who has engaged his heart.

Hilary Birmingham directs her film so that one scene effortlessly flows
into the next, letting us experience the world she's created as one would
experience rural life. Tully Sr.'s weekly trip to the store for his
six-pack carries as much weight in developing his character as a heart-to-heart
with his son Earl. John Foster's ("The Adventures of Sebastian Cole")
unfussy photography is the perfect accompaniment to Birmingham's style.

Anson Mount gets into the nature of a simple guy suddenly presented
with complex issues. Mount brings Tully through incomprehension and
hurt to maturity and the beginnings of emotional depth. Julianne
Nicholson tells us everything about Ella's feelings for Tully when they
first run into each other. Her body language signals attraction,
but her intelligence screams caution. When Tully asks what kinds
of things she's seen in this small town to interest her, she archly replies
'I did see Jill McIntire get out of your car in the middle of the wash
cycle.' Glenn Fitzgerald, a young actor building a solid body of
work, again makes an impression as the younger brother who is more worldwise
and thoughtful than his elder sibling. Burrus gives a restrained performance
that nonetheless paints a full character. In a small role, Natalie
Canerday gives the film underpinnings of longing and melancholy as Claire,
a supermarket clerk vying for Tully Sr.'s attention.

"Tully" quietly pulls you into its sun drenched style of American Gothic
in the Heartland.